Rants and Raves from the Geek Closet

Fandom of the Month: Sherlock

Once upon a time, there was an innocent young blogger who had never indulged in Netflix binge-watching and knew the BBC only as a British news channel. Then, one day, this blogger heard about a show that recreated the adventures of Sherlock Holmes in the 21st century. The blogger, intrigued, watched the first episode of Sherlock – “A Study in Pink.”

Five years later, the BBC owns a disproportionate parcel of my life, I have read every Sherlock Holmes story written by Arthur Conan Doyle, I watch movies just to see Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, and I have completely lost any innocence I once possessed regarding the world of fandoms. And I blame it all on this shot right here:

Sherlock is one of the best-written, best-acted shows on television today, as I think I’ve mentioned before. Every line of dialogue sparks with wit, humour and drama. The main actors have become Hollywood stars for a reason. And, yes, it’s very faithful to Doyle’s original characters, even if the stories have been updated to include smartphones and the Internet. It sucked me in from the moment Sherlock appeared onscreen, accompanied by his epic theme music.

Pros to being a Sherlockian: It’s pretty easy to explain your show to non-nerdy friends and relatives. They’ll probably even like it, if you show it to them. No dragons or weird aliens here–just a genius, anti-social detective and his exasperated, sweater-clad best friend. The show, its stars and its writers are all critically acclaimed. And you’ll always be able to say that you liked Benedict Cumberbatch before he was cool.

Cons to being a Sherlockian: It’s been five years. There are nine episodes. NINE. Add to this the fact that Steven Moffat runs the series, and you can see why the Sherlock fandom is just a little crazy.

They like to make gifs like this.

But it’s amazing how much a show with nine episodes can impact one’s life. To be fair, they are long episodes–about an hour and a half each. And I love every minute of Sherlock. It’s a lovely show in and of itself, and as a gateway drug to every other BBC fandom…it’s priceless. You can probably blame Sherlock for this blog.

So get ready for lots of posts about everyone’s favourite high-functioning sociopath! We’ll be spending the remainder of January with him.